


Unrequited- Barton/Natasha/Banner

by mage_girl



Series: Unrequited [2]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-11
Updated: 2012-05-11
Packaged: 2017-11-05 03:49:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/402133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mage_girl/pseuds/mage_girl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Barton makes a discovery. Part 2/3</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unrequited- Barton/Natasha/Banner

** He’s always been an observer.  
This is part of who he is, this is why he perches so high up because he can see the patterns so much more clearly there. He can remain above emotion and keep his mind clear and focused. He prefers it that way just the way he prefers to have his arrows on hand and at the ready.   
Today, he’s watching Natasha and not sure he likes what he sees. He’s worked with her for years now, they’re comrades in arms, good friends, wingmen--all that and more that he can’t always put into words, and he’s reminded on more than one occasion that he made the right decision to spare her life.   
All these years of seeing her in a state of half undress or with pants off as he’s wrapping a compression bandage around her leg or shoving up her shirt to staunch the bleeding around her middle section. He’s aware she’s a woman, of course. He knows her body better than most anyone else, he’d reckon. Still.  
And now this.  
They’re all at Tony Stark’s headquarters, now all nice and shiny after repairs had taken place. Most of the upper floor’s windows had been shattered and needed replacing. This just gave Tony the excuse to design plates of glass that were nigh unbreakable.  
Ten floors of R and D and Tony allowed them access to one floor. Barton had the sneaking suspicion that this floor was the least incriminating of the lot. But there they are, Natasha and Banner and Stark and himself, in a lab room where Banner and Stark are working on a prototype together.  
Natasha smiles at Dr. Banner, a smile that has something hidden in it, something that prickles the hawk’s predatory senses. He sees Dr. Banner gaze at her, his eyes raised up as she stands over him, one hand on his shoulder.   
All these years and he’s never told her anything about how he feels about her. Nothing that she’d take amiss, that is. She knows he values her expertise and her weaponry and her craftsmanship in the shadows. He’s always had the feeling they were evenly matched and when she ambushed him and literally knocked him to his senses, his guess was proven right. Even though he had quite the headache to attest to it as well.  
No, he has kept his feelings tucked in, like a hawk tucks its wings to its body as it hurtles down from great heights. He has protected those feelings and acknowledged them only to himself. He counts himself fortunate that Stark is so self involved. The man has a mind like a steel trap and he notices things he should just leave alone. He would rather be left alone.  
He watches as Bruce briefly puts a hand on top of Natasha’s, a quick squeezing of her fingers, before he goes on to explain what he’s working on in the lab. Bruce’s eyes are bright and eager, no trace of the Other Guy in his gaze although Barton is well aware that the Other Guy lurks behind the scenes just as he bubbles in Banner’s bloodstream. Banner has everything under control, though, and he has only refined that control since the battle where he gave almost all of himself over to that rage. Almost but holding just enough back to turn a new page in his troubled history with the Other Guy.  
Barton didn’t know what went on between Banner and Natasha on the carrier. He was rather occupied himself, his own id controlled by Loki and he remembers screaming his voice raw when he tried to throw off the effects of the Tesseract. Not that it did him any good. Of course, the screaming was in his own head as by all outside appearances, he was compliant and not a spark of rage or rebellion showed. Speaking of rage, only Natasha knows the sweat filled nights and the thrashing around. She has held him when he’s woken up, his adrenaline at fight or flight and his fists curled around his bed linens.   
Barton doesn’t know whether to be embarrassed or gratified by her insistence to be in the next room when he sleeps. She told him that she might need him during the night but thus far, it’s only been her at his side.  
Natasha has only said that she and Banner were thrown to the lower level when his arrow exploded and the engine rocked the helacarrier to one side, tilting them all into chaos. She told him that she was able to get up to a higher level and after that, well, he knew what happened as well as she did.  
Natasha now leans over Banner’s shoulder, her hair drifting against his cheek, her hand pointing at the image on the screen in front of them. She shifts her hand so that she’s holding Banner around his shoulders, her fingers spanning his upper arm. She leans against Banner’s back, and with that, Barton’s breath goes out in a rush. Natasha wasn’t one to be casual with her contact, especially when it involved touching someone. There was one thing to give a handshake or a hug but Barton had been the only one she’d lean against or fold her arms around when she needed comfort. This was....this was not expected.  
Barton’s heart aches in a way it never did when Loki touched that becursed sceptre to his chest and he...wasn’t, anymore. He had never told Natasha that every time he looked at her, the restlessness, the brokenness, the aloneness faded to something bearable. He never told her that her eyes were what he looked for sometimes in a crowded room. He wished he’d been able to take her face in his hands, cup her chin with his fingers, and kiss her with his focus attuned to her.  
A slight movement caught his attention and his bleak gaze shifted to where Tony Stark was standing. Tony’s eyes were watching Barton’s, his expression about as blank as Barton had ever seen. Barton saw that razor sharp attention shift from him to Banner to Natasha and back to him. Barton schooled his face to stillness but Tony simply tilted his head and nodded once at him. He knew, then.  
Barton’s eyes turned molten, a hawk’s golden gaze refracted by the sun. Tony’s heavy lidded eyes were pools of darkness in his face, and in that moment, Barton understood that he and everyone else has always underestimated Stark. He’d never make that mistake again.  
Tony merely twitched a shoulder and turned his attention back to the floating panels in front of him. Barton had to give Stark credit; he’d never even noticed that Stark wasn’t muttering to himself anymore and that his hands weren’t flying over the panels like a mad pianist.   
Barton glanced over at Natasha and Banner again and his heart clenched anew; she had her chin resting on top of his shoulder and he had put a hand over hers as he explained something to her. So, then.  
Barton looked back over at Stark but he was scrupulously paying no mind to him; Barton supposed he was grateful for small kindnesses. He murmured an excuse and headed to the door. Natasha looked up, then, and she gazed at Barton. She smiled at him and he managed a smile that about killed him. He left then, shedding his dream at the door.  
**

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to aphrodite_mine for her awesome beta work and for not giggling at me too badly. You are so wonderful. <3


End file.
